Lifestyles of Top Museum Directors

Bloomberg‘s Philip Boroff analyzes museum director’s pay and finds that MoMA’s Glenn Lowry stands at the top of the heap. Although Lowry was happy to cut his own pay in the current crisis, his $1.32m pay quoted for this year is still spectacular. Supporters note that Lowry has balanced the museum’s budget and continued to generate capital contributions–$858m worth–that’s been used to expand exhibition space by 50% and double attendance despite increasing the admission price to $20 in 2004. Boroff details the compensation of leading museum directors below (all bullet points are quotes from Boroff’st story:

MoMA–Glenn Lowry

In all, Lowry’s 2008 compensation was $2.7 million. That included $764,000 in retention bonuses since 2004 that accumulated with interest that he hadn’t collected.

The director lives rent-free in the 52-story Museum Tower, the Cesar Pelli-designed condominium over MoMA, an annual benefit valued at $336,000.

J. Paul Getty Trust–James Wood

At the J. Paul Getty Trust, President and Chief Executive Officer James Wood — who joined in early 2007 –made $1.1 million in the year ending in June 2008. Last month, it increased its daily parking fee 50 percent to $15 to cope with its declining endowment. Wood also took a 6 percent pay cut and the Getty Center began free parking on Saturday nights and at weekday evening events.